about this site

Can design change the world?

I don't pretend that social and political problems can be solved with graphics or technology, but tools, technologies, and techniques of communication can profoundly alter our relationship to the world, to power, and to each other.

This Web log is a collection of notes on the built environment, graphic design, product design, architecture, the decisions we make, and the impact they have.

It is an exploration and a work in progress. I’m still working on my definition of “Social Design,” but I’m inclined towards projects that:

• are affordable and sustainable
• are made of renewable materials
• use energy from renewable sources and increase energy efficiency
• reduce consumption and waste, are reusable or recyclable
• are produced and developed locally
• are universally accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and physical conditions
• are developed at the initiative and with the participation of the communities they serve
• facilitate mobility, communication, and participation in civic life
• decentralize political power and facilitate transparency and accountability.

Links that appear within quotations have probably been added by me.

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If you have comments, a story, or link to share do email me.

You can find out more about me and my work here.

Many thanks to Webmonkey for the excellent tutorials that got me up and running with PHP and MySQL and to benb at the defunct ghostreactor.com for givng away the code I hacked to build my search engine.